On the boat forum I go to someone posted a pic of their V8 Path pulling their 22' boat. One user commented that it looked like the Path was being pushed to the limit and I commented that it's pretty capable for a midsize SUV with a 7,000 lb tow rating. Another user then commented:

Remember then that with Nissan, every pound in the vehicle counts against what your tow rating. So it's only 7000 with a driver only. Add passengers, subtract from 7000. Add "junk in the trunk," subtract from 7000.

Does anyone know if this is accurate? I need to take a closer look at my manual. I don't recall exactly what it says.

They're confused as nothing is different with Nissan. There are four limits for all vehicles.

1. Max towing: 6,000 / 7,000 for V6 / V8

2. Max tongue load: 600 / 700 for V6 / V8

3. Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR) 6,113 according to my door placard. This varies based on model/accessories. This lets you calculate max payload by taking the difference between curb weight and the GVWR. Curb on mine is around 4,800# which means all humans, cargo, and trailer tongue weight has to come in under 1,300#.

4. Gross combined vehicle weight (GCVWR) 11,133 / 12,570 for V6/ V8 (per my manual)

If you look at these numbers, you can see it's pretty easy to end up not being able to tow anywhere near the max towing limit because you will blow the GVWR or GCVWR before hitting the max towing.

This isn't something specific to Nissan either. Most trucks can't hit all their specs with more than one/two humans on board. Some can never hit all their specs under any circumstance!

Thanks skinny, helpful info as always.

I took a trip two weekends ago where I had the Path loaded up. We went on a camping trip to Lake Roosevelt. We were towing the boat, had all of the camping gear in back, and bikes on the roof (see crappy pic below ). I'd say we were near the GCVWR. Overall the Path did great. The driving / handling dynamics were good. Braking was also good. The trailer has brakes on both axles so it doesn't feel like it's relying on the vehicle much. The drive up to the lake was overcast with light rain. We climbed grades up to 7% with no problem (gas mileage obviously goes way down).

We drove home on Saturday afternoon and it was a hot sunny day, probably around 106 - 110 degrees F. On one section of road we were climbing a 7% grade for maybe 2-3 miles. The A/C was on of course because it was hot outside. I was keeping a close eye on the engine temp gauge. Maybe a mile and half into the climb I noticed the engine temp start to creep up. The engine RPM automatically dropped down from ~5K to ~3.5K and our speed decreased to about 45 MPH. I pressed the gas pedal a bit to try an maintain 60 MPH, but there was no response. As I watched the engine temp gauge drop back to it's normal level I realized the computer must have taken over to avoid unsafe engine temps. In hind sight, it seems like the system worked as you would expect it to. We still continued to climb the hill, just at a slower speed.

At the next climb we came to I tried to keep the RPM < 5K to keep heat down. I had a little trouble holding the gear I wanted. Maybe next time I should go to manual mode to keep the tranny in the gear I want.

Sounds about right. Those steep hills are going to work the six pretty hard and I can see it going to limp mode. The V8 would likely have been a lot more relaxed pulling those hills, but no reason you can't slow down a bit and get the job done with the six.

What's your tongue weight and do you have airbags? It's squatting pretty good if you have bags.

I'm not sure what the tongue weight is. Is there a good way to measure it?

Yes I have the bags and they were filled up to 30 PSI if I remember correctly. I agree the back was sagging a good bit. I should probably measure the weight to make sure I'm not exceeding the limit. Driving dynamics did not feel any different than when I'm not loaded up with camping gear in the back.

You can go to 35psi on the bags. Just drop the tongue on a scale (that goes that high). Boats like that can be pretty heavy on the tongue.

skinny2 wrote:You can go to 35psi on the bags. Just drop the tongue on a scale (that goes that high). Boats like that can be pretty heavy on the tongue.

My bathroom scale doesn't go that high.

AZ_Path wrote:

skinny2 wrote:You can go to 35psi on the bags. Just drop the tongue on a scale (that goes that high). Boats like that can be pretty heavy on the tongue.

My bathroom scale doesn't go that high.